Tuesday 15 March 2011

YTSO - March 14th, 2011, Day 2 in Sydney, Australia

Yesterday was the first day of rehearsals.  I pretty much leapt out of bed (I had a fairly good sleep considering the plane ride the night before), got ready, and headed down to breakfast.  They had SO MUCH FOOD of every kind.  They're taking really good care of us, wow! Some of us exchanged phone numbers, which is a bit of a funny story since none of us could figure out what our numbers were.  We were given cards with the numbers on it, but the Sharpie had rubbed off most of it, and when we looked on the actual phones it said "Unknown".  I could still read the number on my card, so I texted it to myself so I could tell people what it was, then gave people the number.  When they called me, I would save their number and then tell them what it was.  Kind of complicated, but it worked quite nicely!  We did find an easier way, though, we just Facebooked all the numbers to each other.

After breakfast, we made our way over to the Sydney Opera House for our first rehearsal.  There was a shuttle bus that could have taken us, but a few friends and I figured we'd walk since it was so beautiful outside.  I think it was about 23 degrees outside in the morning... mmmmmmm.  We headed to the Studio, our rehearsal space, which is a theatre in the round.  After warming up a bit and tuning, it was time to start rehearsing.  We started with the Britten (Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra), then moved on to Stravinsky's Firebird.  We also played the Berlioz and the Grainger, which both have particularly nice viola parts.  Everybody is really enthusiastic and they're all wonderful musicians.  We all had to get used to MTT's style of conducting, but once we got it he was very clear to follow.  I'm so looking forward to the rest of the week and polishing all this repertoire!

After rehearsal, the viola section went for lunch in the Green Room before our sectional at 1:30.  Our sectional was with Roger Benedict, principal viola of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.  It was a really interesting sectional, he had lots to say and it was very helpful to have some time together as a section.

I was starting to feel the jetlag catching up to me after that, so some of the violists, DJ (our principal), Caroline, and I went for coffee at a place near the hotel.  I think we all felt a bit more awake after that!  I felt like exploring a little more, so I went for a walk with my Venezuelan friend Ronald.  We found the Sydney Conservatorium, which is a beautiful building that looks like a castle, as well as the Botanic Gardens (but we had to leave after half an hour or so because they wanted to close).  I went back to the hotel and relaxed before supper, then went down to the buffet.  Mmmm... sooo much good food.  And of course good people. 

A few friends and I had planned on going out with a bunch of other YTSOers after supper, but by the time we got down there they had already left.  So, we hung out in the lobby for a bit and talked, and then we were joined by some other musicians and went for another walk around Sydney.  We all practiced speaking Australian (for example: "Ka" instead of "car"), which was good fun.

G'day, mates!

By the way... you can check out http://www.youtube.com/symphony for daily video updates!

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